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Luke Kolbusz is a Boorloo / Perth-based artist whose practice has moved into and out of portraiture looking for a more open, intuitive language that sits somewhere between figuration and abstraction. His recent works blur recognisable forms, that hover at the edge of perception like a wraith, holding small traces of bodies, objects or scenes before dissolving again into something more gestural and atmospheric. The result is work that feels familiar yet hard to pin down, operating in a space of suggestion rather than certainty.

In 2024 Luke Kolbusz worked as Studio Co-ordinator at Arlpwe Arts and Culture in Ali Curung, a remote community four hours north of Alice Springs. The experience has quietly influenced the pace, rhythm and expanded material approach in his recent paintings.

One of his most recent projects, The Caretakers (2025), comprised three large-scale paintings installed in a forest clearing at Odd Vim Doo, a weekend-long dance music and camping festival. Made with acrylic, enamel, luminescent paint and plastic primer on recycled polypropylene, the works hovered between presence and apparition, catching light in unexpected ways.

Luke Kolbusz graduated from Fine Arts (University of Western Australia) and has had a number of sell out exhibitions including Big World in 2020 and New Armour in 2021. These new works presented here continue his open and playful direction, but as always continue to be anchored by his distinctive, searching mark-making.